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Brian McNamee speaks to students in Everett, Mass.

EVERETT, Mass. (AP) - The former personal trainer for Roger Clemens says life can be defined by a single big mistake.

Brian McNamee met with coaches, students and parents at an Everett nutritional supplement store on Thursday and told them they can learn from his mistake, rather than making their own.

The public appearance was McNamee's first since testifying in front of Congress that he injected Clemens, a seven-time Cy Young Award winner, with steroids and human growth hormone.

McNamee is a key source for the Mitchell Report that laid bare the prevalence of steroids in baseball.

He didn't talk about steroids or his Congressional testimony during the talk in front of about 25 people.

Instead, he spoke about training regimens and gave advice on workouts.

Posted by Mike McDermott  at 4:33 PM | Permalink | Comments 0

What you're saying: Robinson looks good for PC

We've been polling readers today about whether Brown coach Craig Robinson is the man PC should hire to fill its men's basketball vacancy. We've received 71 votes so far, with a majority of 42 (59 percent) saying that yes, Robinson is the right choice.

Here is the comment of one Robinson supporter: "To get stability and pride back to the program he is your man... Don't forget that he wins also."

The main knock on Robinson seems to be his short head coaching experience. Here's what one skeptic had to say: "He has only been a head coach for two years and let's face it, coaching basketball at Brown is a far cry from the Big East and coaching at Providence College or Georgetown University."

Click here to place your vote.

Posted by Mike McDermott  at 4:24 PM to PC basketball | Permalink | Comments 0

Q&A with Hal Steinbrenner

By ED PRICE
Newhouse News Service

TAMPA, Fla. - Hank Steinbrenner has supplied the bulk of the quotes from Yankees ownership the past few months, but he has an equal - and not quite silent - partner.

Hal Steinbrenner, the younger of owner George Steinbrenner's two sons, this week agreed to a question-and-answer session.

Steinbrenner, 39 and divorced with three young daughters, graduated from Williams College in 1991 and earned an MBA from the University of Florida. He was the first of the sons to plunge into control of the team after Steve Swindal, George Steinbrenner's designated successor, was divorced from Jennifer Steinbrenner last year.

Hal has been portrayed as media-shy and a more reasoned and cautious counterbalance to the impetuous Hank. But while this week's interview was a rare one, Hal was friendly, showed a sly wit and seemed perfectly comfortable answering questions.

While Hank sports the close-cropped haircut and blue blazer reminiscent of his father, the youthful Hal has wavy hair and dresses casually (with a 1977 World Series ring on his finger) as he sits in his office on the far third-base side of the fourth floor at Legends Field.

Q: With you and Hank involved, how are decisions made now?

A: It all started about a year ago, and it was a work in progress for a while. But it's a family business. It's a lot bigger than it was 10 years ago, with banks and bondholders and a lot of partners. It's just a different deal but we still look at it as a family business. And my brother-in-law's (Felix Lopez, husband of sister Jessica) involved, my sister Jenny's involved as well. So there's really four of us involved.

But I think the way the family wants it, and the partners, is kind of the way it's happened - which is that any major decisions affecting the company in reality affects our family, so Hank and I are going to be on board with it, whether it's a capital expenditure, whether it's increasing debt or raising ticket prices or something with the new stadium. Or whether it's a baseball decision, a significant baseball decision.

So it's worked pretty well. It worked pretty well in the offseason. We got our whole team back, which I think everybody's happy with. So that's pretty much how it is. Now everything gets run past George in the end, of course. That hasn't changed. But he's really given a lot of the responsibility to us, particularly Hank and I, when it comes to major decisions.

Who'd have thought?

Q: Do you have to hash things out with Hank?

A: I don't know if you have brothers, but you're not going to agree on everything. I think it was well-publicized that there was a deal or two we didn't completely see eye-to-eye on (i.e., whether to trade young players for Johan Santana). But overall in the offseason we were right on board with each other, and it worked on well.

Q: Is it as clear-cut as Hank handles baseball decisions and you concentrate on the financial end?

A: We all are focusing on certain areas, but we're all involved with everything. Felix is doing Tampa operations and our Latin operations. My sister Jenny is really involved with the interior design of the new stadium and a few other things. And Hank is very knowledgeable in baseball. He's really concentrated on that. And it's left me to do the other things that need to be done, with the new stadium. Finance is my background, there's no doubt, but we work pretty well together, despite what the public perception is.

Q: After staying pretty much out of the baseball end of the family business, working in the hotel business, how did you come to get back into it?

A: This has been my office for 12 years. Well, it was (former general partner) Joe Molloy's office. I was actually right down next to George for several years. But I've been here, even when I was doing the hotel things. You can't be here four or five days a week and not know what's going on. And I always was.

There's no doubt when Steve (Swindal, who was bought out) left I got considerably more involved, spending more time in New York, really got involved in the stadium project.
That happened about a year ago, and Hank a few months after that. ... He started getting involved over the summer.

Q: What kept you mostly out of the baseball business for such a long time?

A: Right out of Williams, I actually worked at the Stadium for a year, lived in New York in '91. Then I went to Florida for grad school for two years. And then in '94 I started right away (with the hotel business) and the Yankees, doing both.

There were two things. One, I think, was a fear that it would really take away from my time with my kids. ... George was away a lot (when I was) growing up, but 25 years ago, conducting business, you really needed to be where that business was. Now with technology and Blackberries and e-mail on phones, what I've realized the last year is I can conduct business pretty efficiently from anywhere, which is good.

And the other thing was there were certainly times - I know this isn't going to be a shock to you or anybody that reads this - that it was pretty tough working for George. There would be times when I know I, and probably Hank as well, felt like we weren't really needed. George was perfectly capable, as I'm sure you can imagine, of handling everything himself. So that was part of it too, I think.

Q: So is life a lot different for you than a year ago?

A: Yes. But it's been great. I'm very excited about these young pitchers we've got.

Watching the Super Bowl ... the one great thing I really got out of it was watching Eli Manning, who - you know better than I do - struggled a bit when he first got there. And the lesson to be learned, that hopefully our fans have learned, is that if you're patient with young talent, great things can happen. That's all I could think of when I saw him on the field at the end with that trophy.

Having spent a lot of time in New York in the offseason, which I did because of the stadium, every person that came up to me said, "Good job not trading (Phil) Hughes, good job not getting rid of the young kids." So I think they are going to be patient, and hopefully these kids will do as good as we think.

Q: Everyone wants to know: How is George?

A: Look, he's here every day. He's 77. He's definitely slowing down. But overall you see he's here every day. And we don't make many decisions, if any, without running it by him. But what's changed from 5-10 years ago is he's really given us a lot of responsibility to do the due diligence on those decisions and come up with a strong recommendation. That really, I think, paid off. We had a good thing going in the offseason with (GM Brian) Cashman, Hank and I.

Q: With you and Hank so involved, how much power does Cashman have now, after two years of increased authority?

A: Steve was very involved, and so was George. I think they worked as a group, just as we're working as a group now. I don't know that life for "Cash" has changed much.

Q: So it's the same process? Cashman makes recommendations to ownership, and then those are acted on?

A: Exactly the way it should be, in my opinion.

Posted by Mike McDermott  at 3:07 PM | Permalink | Comments 0

Pettitte to test back on Sunday

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - Yankees left-hander Andy Pettitte is scheduled to pitch in a minor league game Sunday.

Pettitte, originally slated to start the Yankees' second game of the regular season on Wednesday, has been slowed by back spasms. If all goes well, he likely will make his first start of the season Friday or Saturday.

"We're going to see how it feels and try and stretch it out," Pettitte said. "Then figure out what I'm going to do after that game."

Pettitte threw off a bullpen mound Wednesday and will do it again Friday. He hasn't pitched in a game since March 17.

"I woke up this morning and I can definitely say it felt as good today as it did yesterday, and maybe even a little bit better," Pettitte said. "The bullpen yesterday didn't set me back at all. So that was positive."

Posted by Mike McDermott  at 1:55 PM | Permalink | Comments 0

Fantasy baseball tips

Today on our Fantasy Sports Blog, David Ferris has complete position-by-position hitter rankings as well as pitcher rankings, and Michael Salfino compares the relative worth real-life GMs place on players compared with the average joes who run fantasy teams, and wonders who really does a better job evaluating talent.

Posted by Mike McDermott  at 9:42 AM | Permalink | Comments 0

Download today's sports cover

On today's sports cover, Sean McAdam writes about Red Sox game two, Bill Reynolds reveals the man he thinks is right for the PC basketball job, and Kevin McNamara reports on the Celtics' latest victory.

Click here to download the file in pdf format.

Posted by Mike McDermott  at 9:18 AM | Permalink | Comments 0